The FBI and federal prosecutors in New York announced Wednesday morning that they have arrested Stefan Pildes, 50, one of the organizers of New York City’s Santacon, an infamous annual public pukefest which claims to be a charitable event. Pildes is accused of diverting money raised by Santacon NYC to a “slush fund,” then using that money for lakefront property renovations, luxury vacations, and concert tickets. All the while, the indictment says, “only a small fraction” of the money raised was actually given to charities.

Santacon, which began its life as a merry little art prank partially inspired by Mother Jones, has since become a powerfully unpopular cultural juggernaut, in which the drunkest denizens of various major American cities dress up in red and urinate upon their local landmarks. In 2023, a Gothamist investigation found that while Santacon NYC, the largest such event in the country, claims to have donated millions to charity, over an eight year period, “less than a fifth” of the money........

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